Kerala floods a result of poor dam management

In a major setback to the Left government in Kerala, an amicus curiae appointed by the Kerala High Court has reported that lapses in dam water management seemed to have aggravated the damages caused by the Kerala floods in 2018.

The amicus curiae has recommended a probe by an expert committee that has a former Supreme Court judge, a hydrologist, dam management experts and engineers to find out the exact reason for the floods and suggest corrective measures.

Over 480 persons were killed and properties worth crores of rupees were damaged in the massive floods Kerala saw in August 2018. The flood affected 5.4 million people and displaced 1.4 million.

The Kerala High Court had appointed the amicus curiae in the wake of a set of petitions filed by a slew of petitions including the one submitted by 'metro-man' E Sreedharan, also the president of the Foundation for Restoration of National Values, that said the floods were a man-made disaster occurred due to lapses in releasing water from dams.

'Protocols not followed'

Amicus curiae Jacob P Alex's 49-page report stated that the simultaneous opening of many dams seemed to have aggravated the disaster. The impact of the disaster could have been minimised if the water were released from dams in a regulated manner.

The amicus curiae's report points that none of the 79 dams in the southern state were operated or used for the purpose of flood control or moderation, as per the stipulations under the National Water Policy, National Disaster Management Authority guidelines on floods and similar directives.

According to the report, dams in the state had not maintained effective Flood Control Zone and the Flood Cushion as mandated by the BIS report and other rule books. Most of the major reservoirs were almost full before the heavy rainfall that occurred before floods in August, 2018 and could not accommodate the additional flow generated by extreme rainfall. In addition, various alerts—blue, orange and red—had been issued not in accordance with the guidelines, said the report.

"No proper follow-up action and effective precautionary steps (especially for evacuating people and accommodating them in safe location) were taken after issuance of Red Alert," it said.

The report also pointed out that the dam managers didn't have to 'solely' rely on IMD predictions for dam management. Variation in the forecast or prediction cannot be counted as a justification for delayed release of water from dams, it added.

The authorities did not take adequate measures to avoid a disaster despite warnings regarding bad weather. Water levels in the dams went up swiftly owing to heavy silt deposits on the bottom of the dams, sources said quoting the report.

The total loss incurred by the state was to the tune of Rs 26,720 crore and the total recovery needs are estimated at 31,000 crore, the report said.

Ruling party on backfoot

Kerala Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala demanded that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan own up the responsibility for the disaster. The government had denied the opposition's allegations so far about the disaster being man-made, Ramesh said in a statement.

BJP state president, P S Sreedharan Pillai demanded the resignation of Vijayan in the wake of the adverse report.

Meanwhile, State Power Minister, M M Mani who was visibly angry, evaded questions on Tuesday when journalists sought his reaction on the report, and asked them to get out.